The Analysis of Translator's Dilemmas Concerning the Translation of, Friends
Olga Robak IV KMT
The Analysis of Translator’s dilemmas concerning the translation of „Friends”
I. INTRODUCTION
According to Agnieszka Szarkowska “translation does not take place between words but rather between cultures.” I totally agree with this statement, which, in my opinion can be applied especially to translating cultural idioms. Rewriting them word by word just changing the language, which we can come across very often, preserves idiom’s literal meaning but makes it loose the metaphorical one. That is why we should rather look for the most accurate equivalent in the target language or at least try to convey the same message in some non-idiomatic expression.
One the other hand, some critics ,Carlo Marzocchi being one of them, say that we should rather use other translation methods like loan, calque or explanation instead of looking for equivalent, which they find most controversial. Marzocchi states that “replacing idioms with natural-sounding equivalents in the target language deprives our listeners and colleagues of meaningful cultural information.” Although what he says is true, his approach is very source culture centered – his biggest interest is in transferring cultural elements without considering the fact that they may be not understood by the target audience.
Anna Jankowska wrote that although “it is very often said that humor does not travel well […] it is enough to turn on the TV or to go to the cinema to realize that […] humor does travel across linguistic and cultural barriers.” In many cases this is true; it is enough to look at the Polish translation of “Shrek” to observe that the same jokes can be transferred from one language to another. Unfortunately, there is a lot of examples of very clumsy humor translations or of their total omission. Especially word plays tend to be blunted or completely left out. Katia Spanakaki describes different ways of dealing with puns like, for example, looking for a similar pun in a target language,
The Analysis of Translator’s dilemmas concerning the translation of „Friends”
I. INTRODUCTION
According to Agnieszka Szarkowska “translation does not take place between words but rather between cultures.” I totally agree with this statement, which, in my opinion can be applied especially to translating cultural idioms. Rewriting them word by word just changing the language, which we can come across very often, preserves idiom’s literal meaning but makes it loose the metaphorical one. That is why we should rather look for the most accurate equivalent in the target language or at least try to convey the same message in some non-idiomatic expression.
One the other hand, some critics ,Carlo Marzocchi being one of them, say that we should rather use other translation methods like loan, calque or explanation instead of looking for equivalent, which they find most controversial. Marzocchi states that “replacing idioms with natural-sounding equivalents in the target language deprives our listeners and colleagues of meaningful cultural information.” Although what he says is true, his approach is very source culture centered – his biggest interest is in transferring cultural elements without considering the fact that they may be not understood by the target audience.
Anna Jankowska wrote that although “it is very often said that humor does not travel well […] it is enough to turn on the TV or to go to the cinema to realize that […] humor does travel across linguistic and cultural barriers.” In many cases this is true; it is enough to look at the Polish translation of “Shrek” to observe that the same jokes can be transferred from one language to another. Unfortunately, there is a lot of examples of very clumsy humor translations or of their total omission. Especially word plays tend to be blunted or completely left out. Katia Spanakaki describes different ways of dealing with puns like, for example, looking for a similar pun in a target language,